Witch Craft
Witch Craft
Order Description
This needs to be done in Chicago style with Footnotes!
As you read for this week, ask yourself why John Hale and Cotton Mather came to different conclusions about the meanings of the witchcraft outbreak in Salem.
Reading:
Cotton Mather, Wonders of the Invisible World. Read from the beginning through âEnchantments Encounteredâ (stop when get to âA Discourse on the Wonders of the Invisible Worldâ); Begin reading again at âThe Trial of GBâ and read all of the trials (stop at âThe Devil Discoveredâ). Available at http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/19/
John Hale, A Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft. Available at http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/BurNarr.html
Paper 2: 4-5 page paper comparing Hale and Matherâs perspectives on the Salem trials
These are the questions I had hoped to go over yesterday in class. They should help you as you work on your next paper.
a. How do the two authors think about the relationship between God and the Devil?
b. How do the authors think about the relationship between New England and the devil. Is witchcraft more or less likely to be practiced in New England and why?
c. What sorts of proofs are reliable evidence of witchcraft and why? What alternate explanations does each provide (or reject) as explanations for the widespread confessions.
d. Why does Cotton Mather concentrate in detail on a handful of cases while John Hale instead gives a general overview of the trials. How does each method help to make the authorâs point?
e. On the basis of interior evidence and the background I have given you, what do you think prompted each author to write?
f. Why does each author believe that God allowed the witch trials to happen?